Astronomy has always captured my interest. Ever since I was a little girl, I would look up at the night sky and be mesmerized by the billions of stars that I saw. My family would break out our old telescope and spend our nights gazing at the sky, one of my favorite childhood memories.
Staring into space is the only thing that can make me forget about absolutely every thing. It is my own version of meditation. It amazes me that the richest person in the world, can see the same exact thing that the poorest person in the world sees. Astronomy is humbling. It unites us all. The only lessons I can remember from elementary, middle, and even high school, were the ones taught in my school district’s planetarium. To this day I can still remember every lecture I had on Astronomy, but am fuzzy on almost every thing else.
One of the people that I am constantly looking to for inspiration is famed astronomer and cosmologist, Carl Sagan. In Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Sagan states, “It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known”.
There is still so much to learn on this planet, let alone others and what ever lies beyond the universe. Sagan believes, “We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still”. In agreement with Sagan, I personally believe that more of us need to get out and wander. Wander the Earth and make new discoveries.
I’m not quite sure how to relate design with Astronomy, but the natural beauty that it offers, is quite inspiring. Astronomy offers feelings of connectedness, humbleness, and the quest for knowledge, feelings that can be applied to design.